This invention relates to the art of cooling systems and, more particularly, to a cooling system for an electronic component system cabinet.
Conventional air cooling systems are inefficient and limit integration density of information technology (IT) equipment in server racks. Air cooling inefficiency leads to high infrastructure and energy costs. In order to provide greater cooling efficiency many IT systems currently employ liquid cooling systems. Liquid cooling systems are typically more compact relative to similarly rated air cooling systems. In addition, liquid cooling systems generally have lower power requirements than similarly rated air cooling systems due to the improved thermo-physical properties of liquids as compared to air.
While effective, liquid cooling systems possess several drawbacks. For example, reliable implementation of liquid cooling systems in highly parallel and flexible systems such as, blade servers is challenging. When using liquid as a coolant, each blade server includes a corresponding blade liquid loop that must connect with an associated rack liquid loop. In order to maintain system flexibility, individual blade servers must be readily interchangeable during operation. Thus, each blade server typically includes an associated pump or pumps and a quick-connect member that fluidly links the blade liquid loop to the rack liquid loop. Quick-connects represent a potential failure point that may result in fluid contacting electronic components on the blade server. In addition, the use of multiple pumps for redundancy purposes significantly increases system costs. Liquid contact, of any amount, with electronic components is unacceptable. A faulty quick connect could result in a significant liquid leakage. Quick connects also do not prevent the gradual loss of liquid over time requiring liquid reservoirs to be refilled.